Town's game at Scunthorpe has been postponed after an early morning pitch inspection. Referee Andy Haines stayed overnight in North Lincolnshire and declared the surface unplayable after giving it the once over along with managers Roy Keane and Nigel Adkins at 8.30am.

Temperatures in Scunthorpe dipped to minus six overnight and were still at the same levels this morning with some areas of the pitch frozen.

The covers which have been on the pitch since Wednesday were only expected to be able to withstand temperatures down to minus four. Earlier in the week, Scunthorpe said that below that they anticipated some areas of the surface being frozen and the game being in doubt.

The postponement means that Jon Walters and Grant Leadbitter will now be suspended for the trip to Crystal Palace on Boxing Day (KO 1pm). Striker Stern John is also unavailable for the game against his parent club with his spell with the Blues ending on December 29th.

Photo: Action Images

CavendishBlue added 09:09 - Dec 19 snow ball fight!!!!
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SouperJim added 09:10 - Dec 19 Poo.
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IpsRich added 09:14 - Dec 19 Not good enough in the modern era that a second tier football club can't protect their pitch. Access to the stadium is clearly a different matter, but pitches should be fairly straight forward to cover properly these days. There should be penalties for Prem/Champ clubs that can't ensure their games go ahead.
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itfc1981 added 09:18 - Dec 19 noooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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mripswichtown added 09:20 - Dec 19 Rich the is alot of snow laying about would you rather us play on a frozen pitch and get lots of injuries or play it later on and have no injuries. I know its disappointing but safety comes first
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ITFC4EVER added 09:24 - Dec 19 oh well. ill just watch the other scores come in.
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biffo added 09:32 - Dec 19 who let a jock team into championship anyhow???
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BlueBoots added 09:34 - Dec 19 Never mind - there's still the opportunity to watch "Ipswich" play this afternoon: ITV4 - 3.40pm - Escape To Victory Happy Christmas!
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Back_The_Boss added 09:41 - Dec 19 IpsRich - If the pitch is frozen then there's nothing you can do. Scunthorpe are hardly going to have undersoil heating!
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IpsRich added 09:47 - Dec 19 kingkeano - we don't have undersoil heating. When was the last time one of our games was called off?
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nsblu1 added 10:03 - Dec 19 I saw in Stowmarket when the new came through, just picking up the last one. TBH given the forecast for later it is not such a bad thing.
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EatonBlue added 10:13 - Dec 19 It's interesting that Grimsby (only a short distance away) managed to get their game to go ahead last night.
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NSL added 10:23 - Dec 19 Bit annoyed at Radio Suffolk who were interviewing Wooley at the ground this morning, bigging the game up and waving people off wishing them a good journey to Scunny, not once mentioning that the game is subject to a pitch inspection. Amatuer. Glad I happened to be listening to the announcement just as I was stepping out the door. Really disapointed as I think we would have hammered them today.

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mikeybloo88 added 10:35 - Dec 19 Pity Walters and Leadbitter miss the Palace game now though - we probably could have still beaten Scunny without them but the Palace game will be much tougher
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SitfcB added 10:38 - Dec 19 I agree with you IpsRich........Its a disgrace!!!!!
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Redmond added 10:42 - Dec 19 Never mind one good point if norris was going to play 2day he cant now and it gives him more time to rest up and what does this mean for Walters and Leadbitters Ban?
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im_marcacus added 10:46 - Dec 19 I'm trapped indoors for the second day running waiting for a parcel to be delivered, the game was the only thing keeping my moral up. Big fat sad smiley.
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SitfcB added 10:55 - Dec 19 Redmond.....They will miss the Palace game.....Bad Times....:-(((
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Mungo added 11:10 - Dec 19 Annoying but these things happen sometimes. More worrying is the fact that we will now be without Leadbitter, Walters and John for the Palace game, which will make a tricky game even trickier...
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moomoosereni added 12:14 - Dec 19 Christ there are some miserable old souls on here today aren't there! Penalize this and fine that.............. come on you miserable sods it's just one game of football, there's snow outside and xmas is just a few days away. If you have them, take your kids outside and have some fun! Come on people its xmas, cheer up!!!!
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BlueJoe added 12:44 - Dec 19 scunny can go suck a orange :(
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ShefTractor added 13:12 - Dec 19 Well there's no snow left and minimal ice in Sheffield right now so the only conclusion we can come to is that they are running home scared. I blame Jim.
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jas0999 added 13:16 - Dec 19 I agree that in the Championship a club should be able to protect their pitch, but that said the weather conditions have been extreme. If the pitch is frozen then common sense has prevailed. Unfortunately, because of this we are now two strikers down for Palace. Still, not Scunthorpe's fault.
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PablosRightBoot added 14:03 - Dec 19 for whoever asked when the last time a game at portman road got called off...last season in the fa youth cup. the annoying thing is that we would have played john instead of walters and now we have to have a choice of pablo, priskin or wickham with stead against palace who will be a tougher opponent. i think we could struggle against palace unless we see a big performance from one or two of the fringe players. its cruel but thats football

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TractorBeezer added 15:04 - Dec 19 At least our unbeaten streak stays intact! Merry Christmas.
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